Civic official assaulted in August: BMC slaps MNS corporator with show-cause notice

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued a show-cause notice to MNS corporator Girish Dhanurkar, asking him to state why he should not be disqualified for allegedly assaulting a BMC employee and illegally constructing an office.

In trouble: Girish Dhanurkar (inset) has about 150 sq ft of office space in Dadar, in which a BMC official had found that a portion violated norms, as its height went beyond 14 feet. File Pics

The notice comes after Dhanurkar and his goons beat up a civic engineer in August for failing to answer his phone calls. The official later explained, while recuperating from the injuries, that he was riding his bike at the time.

Dhanurkar has about 150 sq ft of office space in Dadar (West), near Jakhadevi Chowk. After the assault, the BMC found out that he had built a portion of his office in violation of norms, as its height went beyond 14 feet. Dhanurkar had then said that he didn't own the property but used it on a leave and licence basis for a monthly charge of Rs 25,000.

But he nonetheless proceeded to raze the illegal section in the last week of August and quickly sought to obtain free office space in a civic school building by raising a ‘Notice of Motion' in the civic general body meeting.

The BMC's show-cause notice has been prepared by the BMC's legal department and is signed by Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte. It was dispatched from the ward office on Saturday and reached Dhanurkar on Monday.

While Kunte was not available for comment, Uday Kedar, civic law officer, has confirmed that the notice has been issued. "The notice has been sent to Dhanurkar but I don't know about the current status," he said. u00a0

The other side
For his part, the corporator refuted the allegations and denied receiving any notice. "The assault case is pending before court. And the office is not owned by me, I have it on rent," he said, adding that he'd have to reply when he did receive the notice.

The incident
On August 1, the MNS corporator summoned junior engineer Rajesh Rathod from the G-North civic ward office to his party office, where he and his goons allegedly thrashed him, as he had failed to answer their "emergency calls". The "emergency" pertained to a temporary shed that had come up at the corporator's shop-front, which he wanted demolished. Immediately after the assault, a seething BMC registered a first information report (FIR) in Dadar police station against Dhanurkar and four of his accomplices, who were arrested and later released on bail.u00a0